Eric Metaxas’ Testimony Promotes His Yale Education, Catholicism, New Age and Jungian Thought. Let me just start off with there are so many things that throw red flags up in this testimony, obviously and subtly. I won’t address them all, but if you are biblically discerned, by God’s grace, and interested in noting everything, you will catch them, after you watch it about a half dozen times, like I did. I’ll just take a look at some things here. For example, how ironic that Metaxas starts off with, “We’re talking about reality here…” and then moves to talking about dreams. He dreamed that God confirmed that Eric accepted Christ because God used Eric’s OWN SYMBOLS SYSTEM to “one up him” to “blow his mind.” WHOA! That God showed Eric, in his dream, that Eric accepted Christ, in his collective unconsciousness which talks to his collect consciousness (Jungian). Secondly, it isn’t biblical to say we “accepted Christ.” It is we sinners who have been in rebellion toward God and need to repent and be accepted by Him. We “receive Christ,” in the words of the apostle Paul, as in we receive the free gift of salvation by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone. It is not the notion of accepting Christ that constitutes salvation. That mentally or emotionally agreeing, mental ascent, to what Christ has done, His ministry, death, burial and resurrection to the right hand of the Father is not saving faith! It is setting Him apart in our hearts, a convicting and regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, that enables us to repent and believe the gospel after the Lord shows us our sinfulness by His grace. When this happens, you know it! There is no question about it. And you don’t need a dream to confirm it. In fact, that is unbiblical. Thirdly, confusion with Eric was noted when he said “something happened.” Again, there is no question or confusion when Christ reveals Himself to a lost sinner. It was “pain,” not sin, that made him consider praying to God with his friend. This would be praying for a felt need rather than repenting for sin. Fourthly, his testimony is not only full of New Age teaching which he literally dreamed up, but it is blasphemous and spews arrogance and idolatry! He depicts Christ as a goldfish, rather a “golden fish” (would that be like a golden calf?) which he pulled by the tail out of a lake, breaking through the ice to “inert water,” which he claimed represented his collective unconsciousness (Jungian).

Where was the gospel in this testimony? It was never mentioned. The Bible and the terms of the gospel (Lk 9:23-26, Mk 1:15; Jn 14:15), the narrow Gate that leads to the narrow path to life/salvation (Mt 7:13-14), the only Way to the Father, JESUS (Jn 14:6), what God has set in place for being born again, were never mentioned. Metaxas claims he found Christ through the New Age, that occultic Jung, who communicated with spirits, led him there and that God confirmed this to Eric in a dream where God used Eric’s symbols. Big red flag! Lots of ‘em! We do not find Christ, or have assurance of our salvation, by any other means other than the Bible (Rom 1:16; Rom 10:17; 1 Jn 5:13) and with the words of Paul again, by the “Holy Spirit testifying to our spirit,” (Rom 8:16). Not to what psychoanalyst Carl Jung calls the “collective conscious” or “collective unconsciousness.” Metaxas is dangerously broadening the Bible’s definition of what it means to be truly born again.

He describes his testimony with New Age terms like “energy force,” “collective unconsciousness (Jungian),” “New Age Eastern force,” “cosmic energy force,” “connects us all together,” “not old-fashioned like a man with a beard on a cloud or Jesus.” YIKES!!!!! His testimony is one of many others directed and produced by Redeemer Presbyterian Church, pastored by Tim Keller, in NYC, every one of these testimonies widening the narrow door. Eric’s testimony comes complete with New Age animation and sounds by Chaos Theory Music.

This is a classic example of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Whether he realizes it or not, he is deceived by the false teachings of the New Age/New Thought and Psychology Movement coupled with his own pride and arrogance. He did make a true, biblical statement, which many wolves do. Specifically, Eric commented about following Christ, even if it means to suffer for Him and to consider it joy, but then quickly turned to New Age false teaching. He is promoting his books, the New Age, his Yale education and Bonhoeffer as a sound, biblical theologian, which he is not.

Metaxas is promoted and endorsed by Mormon Glenn Beck and purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, ecumenical Rick Warren. That should tell us something in and of itself! In the interview, Metaxas says proudly that Bonhoeffer is a “Barthian,” as if this is a good thing. Karl Barth was endorsed and promoted by Roman Catholic Pope Pius XII as being as great a theologian as Thomas Aquinas, who was a pagan Catholic that taught mysticism and contemplative prayer.